FRIDAY POTPOURRI: THAT WHICH BLOCKS BECOMING THAT WHICH HELPS YOU THROUGH

Conclusion of Lumen Fidei

 

Last night we had a classical guitar concert at Forest Lodge.  The man who performed, a convert to the faith, talked about a book he was reading about the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He told about how, as a Protestant, one of the things that kept him from coming into the faith earlier was the Church’s attention of Mary.  Once he figured out what the Church was really saying and doing  It reminds me of the Bishop Fulton J. Sheen quote,

, he fell head over heels in love with her, embraced the Church, and last night I blessed his new rosary, the old one having worn out.

 

“There are not 100 people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”

 

At the end of Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis urges us to look to Mary as an icon, the model of what a follow of Christ is to be.  In a beautiful use of words he said that she, “conceived faith and joy.”  That is why I cringe ever so slightly when I see our Catholic artwork of the saints.  They all look so serious, concerned, and full if purple, pious poop. We have only one statue with a smile on his face.  (Then again, I also dislike the goofy, “come play soccer with me” look.  I am not easily pleased.)  Mary is our “perfect icon.”  We can, through her, learn to see through Jesus’ eyes.

 

Any ideas on what to do next on Friday Potpourri?

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: TO DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Lumen Fidei chapter 4

 

Chesterton talks about how, when Christianity comes on the scene, God brings into the world the completely unreasonable virtues of faith, hope, and charity.  We are asked to have charity for the unpardonable.  Hope is only helpful when its cause seems lost.  And faith is the seemingly unreasonable hope of life after the crucifixion.  Yet it is these things, this in breaking of the Kingdom of God and of His love, that makes it possible for us to live together, to love each other and not use each other in utility.  It makes the world a better place.

 

Faith is not “for the faint hearted.”  It calls us to build just governments, to respect the created gifts given us, to respect life, and live in harmony.  It is essential to the proper functioning of humankind and therefore we must never grow shy about proclaiming the faith and inviting others to enjoy it.

 

This is a brutally short and synopsis of this chapter.  If it interests you, there is much more to read on the Vatican website!

FRIDAY POTOURRI: IT'S ABOUT US.

Lumen Fidei chapter 3

 

There is a lot of truth that we accept that is simply handed to us.  If I tell you that I typed this post on my computer and posted it, though you have no way (or even if you did you wouldn’t bother) of testing and knowing for fact the veracity of this supposed truth, you would most likely accept it for any number of reasons.  We also accept all sorts of other things because we are part of the community of man.  We receive our name.  We know a spoon is called a spoon and not a dump truck.  Community stores this collective knowledge and passes it on.  That is why we are Church and not a collection of “Me and Jesus” people.

 

We are most Church when we celebrate the sacraments and follow the teaching of our Church, which is kept safe for us through apostolic succession and Tradition.  When we step outside of these things we run the risk of losing truth (or truth becoming relative) and the unity of man (and man with God) is in jeopardy.

 

If this intrigues you, I invite you to read the whole thing which is much deeper than this little synopsis. 

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: OPIUM IS THE OPIATE OF THE MASSES

Chapter 2 of Lumen Fidei

 

“Christianity is the opiate of the masses!” or so said Karl Marx and it is absolutely true if faith is not wedded to truth.  If faith is not wedded to truth than it is no better than a sit com on TV that allows us to forget our worries and be happy for a little spell. 

 

But true faith is all about truth.  Today’s Catholic cannot lose sight of this.  On the one hand there are those who only believe in things that can be measured, viewed, and reproduced.  At the other end of the spectrum are those who only hold to what is true for the individual (it’s true for me even if it isn’t true for you.)  But there is a deeper understanding of truth that lies in humanity’s memory.  It grounds faith and far from being a hard dictator, is something that brings us freedom when properly understood.

 

If we do not think of freedom as something that we possess, then we can engage others in faith.  Truth is rather something that possess us and therefore we can walk with others who have are on a sincere search for truth and faith.  It is this truth and faith for which all sincere seekers are looking.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: JUMP IN, THE WATER'S FINE

On a retreat once a man was speaking about swimming in a pool with his very young son.  The son stood at the edge of the pool where the water would be over his head as it came up to chest level of his father who stood in the pool.  The man coaxed his son to jump in.  “Don’t worry.  I will catch you.”  It took quite a bit of encouragement because the boy’s fear needed to be overcome by his faith, trust, and hope in his father.  Finally he takes the risk and jumps in.  His father does catch him and after the initial shot of fear, he laughed, held securely and safely in his father’s arms.

 

In large part, this is what this whole next chapter is about in Pope Francis’ “Lumen Fidei.”  If you remember, last week we diagnosed a problem: our society needs the light of faith once again.  In this section the pope is reminding us through evidence of past events why our Father is one in whom to place our trust and our hope.  Remember Abraham and how God guided and cared for the people of Israel through all the ages.  The coming of Jesus shows proof of God’s love for us when Jesus even dies for our sake.  To see His mangled body might cause one to lose one’s faith, “How could God let this happen?”  But it is in precisely that He was willing to submit to the cruelty of man in order to give to men the means of salvation that we have our faith strengthened.  But it is in His resurrection that we understand that this is a reliable love.

 

But it is not enough simply to be saved by His great action.  It is also about relationship.  If good business is about location, location, location, salvation is about relationship, relationship, relationship.  We are called to be in relationship with God and only in this way do we gain from Him a way of seeing the world, understanding it, and living in it.  Through this we are transformed.

 

This faith is necessarily lived out in the Church, in the faith community.  It is never “God and me.”  It is the Church and God.  Faith, since it saves all, is not a private matter but one to be lived within the Body of Christ and the Church is the Body of Christ.

 

Francis wrote much more and much more beautifully in this chapter, but this gives you a taste.  We have only to look to see that God has always been with us and guided us.  Today, we take the jump of faith into the pool of Christ’s body which is expressed in this world by the Church.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: AANotes: LUMEN FIDEI: KNOCK OFF PAGANS

In general I am opposed to CliffsNotes versions of things that we are “supposed” to read.  But it is also understandable that after a day at work, home chores and responsibilities, and with the one hour you have to relax, you probably are not going to cozy up with a Church encyclical for some satiating reading.  So for the next few weeks on Friday Potpourri we will have the AANotes on Lumen Fidei, our Popes encyclical addressed to all the faithful, so that you will at least have a decent idea on what our pontiff wishes to know though the fullness of what is being said can only be grasped by reading it.

 

Here is the main gist of the entire preface: 

 

The faith is a light for all of humanity to help us understand who we are, how we are supposed to live, to give us worth, dignity, direction, and hope for the future.  G. K. Chesterton talks about the pagan world (so does Francis here though he doesn’t mention my buddy G. K.) and how it gave way to the Christian world.  It lacked that ultimate light for which it strove.  Nobody “has ever died for his faith in the sun” wrote St. Justin Martyr.  Still, true paganism (unlike today’s knock off brand of it) had a very strict moral code, grave ideas of honor and respect and sacrifice, but it could not carry the weight, need, and the divine spark of the human person.  That is why it passed when Christianity came on the scene.  That is why to return to paganism is not a cure especially when used by those who employ it with the grave misunderstanding that it provides a framework for engaging in any human endeavor the particular individual wants license to engage in.  That was NOT the paganism of old.

 

We know that Western culture is enamored with itself.  Like so many past generations it is self impressed with its technological advances, it growing collection of facts, and its television reruns, and so has figured it has now arrived, can work out life on its own, and can relinquish faith.  In fact, as it has so many times in the past, it now sees faith as darkness, a step backward, full of emotionalism and superstition.

 

But the experiment has once again failed.  Lost as society is, it has even lost its nerve to say anything is true.  The idea of the dignity and worth of man is in free fall and the ability to say for sure what is good and what is evil is escaping us. 

 

Because of this there is a great need for the light of faith to help inform us who we are, and, in knowing who we are, how we are to live in order to be most fully and healthily human and what is our ultimate end and how can we get there.  We are aware that faith can be a fragile thing and that we once again must nourish and promote it like a grape vine lest it be overcome by weeds and fail to produce fruit.

 

That’s the set up largely in my own words.  We just went through two and half pages of small, single spaced document.  We’ll start the first chapter next week.